"If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us," we are told in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, "matter is then submitting to Spirit." Science and Health, p. 239. Love, according to the Bible, is a term for God. What a tremendous thing—God, who is all-powerful, being divine Love! Once a person feels the nearness and dearness of divine Love, how can he or she help letting Love be an integral part of life in every detail?
At one time, in great pain that just refused to let go, I came across this wonderful quotation, and something happened. I began to use this statement as a measuring stick with which to judge my daily life. I knew that the words God, divine Love, and love needed to become more tangible to me. After much prayer and consecrated time of actually living with all my heart what I was learning of God, a great light shone. And suddenly I knew that divine Love was truly "becoming nearer, dearer, and more real" to me. There was then evidence in my body that matter was submitting to Spirit. Healing occurred immediately, even after this long struggle with pain and misery. It is an experience that I will never forget. And it is as vivid as if it occurred yesterday, or even today. Why? One reason is that it plumbed the depths of thought and feeling. This healing still remains important to me, and helps to instruct me.
How can we bear witness to the power of Love in our lives? We can strive to love as Christ Jesus did—every moment reflecting spiritually the power of divine Love. The love he expressed was divinely inspired, not humanly created. Therefore we can also look to God for the love we express, even with the smallest things. If another takes your right of way on a buzzing thoroughfare, you can love a little more and alertly wait your turn to progress in traffic. If someone with less experience is put ahead of you at work, you can love enough to know that your Father-Mother Love is caring for you, and then listen a little more carefully and willingly for guidance and instruction in righteousness. If another is jealous, selfish, or thoughtless toward you, you can still express enough of the spiritual love that penetrates and outshines the mental darkness. Loving in this way isn't an exercise of the human mind; it is drawing upon the very power and substance of God, of divine Love itself.
